François Roche (born 1961) is a French architect. Roche is the co-founder and director of R&Sie(n) Architects from the research architectural firm, New Territories/M4 (mindmachinemakingmyths).
Early life and education
François Roche was born in 1961 in Paris, France. Roche studied science and math at University, but, decided in 1981 to switch his degree to architecture. His interest in the sciences would go on to influence his architectural work. He spent time in the Algerian desert during his time in college, deciding whether he wanted to complete his degree in architecture. In 1987, he graduated from the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles.
Career
Roche founded his first studio in Paris in 1989. He expanded to incorporate in 1994, after his first solo show "Action" at IFA (Institut Francais d'Architecture), following this manifesto Stephanie Lavaux joined him as a partner (until 2011), naming the studio R&Sie(n), the "R" in the name is for Roche, the "S" is for Stephanie, and is pronounced similarly to the word "heresy" in French, but also "RSI" in reference to Real Symbolic Imaginary of J. Lacan. The studio specializes in architectural "investigations" and "scenarios" with the goal of connecting the relationship between humans and buildings. Roche would go on to create New Territories/M4, which houses R&Sie, along with other installation, architectural, and digital design projects, with partner Camille Lacadée.
Since the 1990s, Roche has been represented by an androgynous, digitally created avatar named s/he. Roche describes s/he as "a kind of doppelgänger, a Siamese twin, the mask of Mishima, an avatar of Vishnu. Androgynous in appearance and with a queer attitude, s/he has enabled me for twenty-five years to maintain a singular voice, coming from nowhere, emerging from territories that abandoned the posture of authority, of discourse, and of academia."
In 2004, R&Sie(n) created DustyRelief for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand. The piece was designed to absorb the city smog, which would then cause the structure to grow. The piece was inspired by Man Ray's Dust Breeding. The project was canceled due to a coup d'état.
While speaking in at an event in London in 2010, Roche shared that he would be "happy" if somebody went into one of his buildings or designs, got lost, and abandons need of exit, in reference to S. Brussolo novel (Trajets et Itineraires de l'oubli, 1981). That same year, Roche ended his professional relationship with Lavaux and began working with Camille Lacadée. In 2011, the avatar used to represent the R&Sie(n) committed "suicide" only to re-emerge in 2017, to perform his-her first solo retrospective at Frac Orléans. Around 2013, Roche opened a studio in the Talat Noi neighborhood of Bangkok. Before relocating from Paris to Bangkok, Roche transformed his Paris house in a project called I'm Lost in Paris. The project involved cultivating bacteria which turned into vegetation covering the house.
Roche and Lacadée launched a Kickstarter to raise funds to an "experimental hybrid building" called MMYST. The project was to be built by robots in Thailand. In May 2015, Roche, Lacadée, and Pierre Huyghe to create "What Could Happen," an "experimental euthanasia expedition" in the Swiss Alps. In October 2015, he lectured with Lacadée at the University of Michigan's Taubman College. That same month, Roche and Lacadée exhibited #mythomaniaS at the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The exhibit included videos of "architectural scenarios" around the world. Roche's professional partnership with Lacadée ended in 2015. Since 2018 Roche is sharing multiple Works, Events, Films, Biennales (Sydney, Bangkok and Venice...) with Mika Tamori, Tokyo based Artist.Mika Tamori
In 2016, Frac Centre-Val de Loire held a retrospective, titled S/he would rather do fiction maker of Roche's work with New Territories/M4.
Roche's work has been exhibited at Mori Art Museum, Columbia University, the Pompidou Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and other museums and galleries. Roche has exhibited in the Venice Biennale multiple times, including in 2004's Metamorph International Architecture Exposition; the 2008 International Architecture Exposition in which R&Sie exhibited their "bi[r]o-bo[o]ts"; the 2014 "Time Space Existence: Made in Europe" biennale; and 2018 at the Bembo Pavilion and the Lithuanian Pavilion. Roche has also participated as a panelist at the 2012 United States pavilion. His 2010 installation, Building Which Never Dies, was partially confiscated by Italian police for containing uranium. The incident caused an entire section of the Biennale to be closed for an entire day. In 2025 after 15 years of banishment in central Venice pavilion, New-Territories, fRoche-S/he with Emanuele Coccia and Mika Tamori among others are again in Architecture Biennale 25 _ Arsenale for "Impermanences Tractatus" installation.
Themes and concepts in Roche's work
Roche's works often represent the divergence of science, architecture, philosophy, science fiction genetics, art, identity, and biopolitics. However, through the avatar, Roche explores philosophical concepts of the LGBTQI community, communications, and philosophy. In describing his beliefs and work, Roche often cites fiction and non-fiction, ranging from Jacques Lacan to Noam Chomsky to Paul B. Preciado. Roche describes s/he and New Territories as "tool to knot and unknot realities" in the spirit of Michel Foucault.
The Frac Centre-Val de Loire calls Roche's early work as veering "towards hybridization and "hyperlocalism", aimed at distorting reality and bringing out its most significant unusualness." In 1996, Roche started using digital processes to create his work. Roche's later works also incorporate robotics complemented by writing and lectures.
Reception Roche has been called an "elusive" architect-artist by The New York Times, a "provocateur" by the Bangkok Post, and "always provocative" by The Architect's Newspaper. The New York Times describes Roche's work as "not buildings exactly, but scientific experiments." In France he has been called an ANARCHITECT in French newspaper Libération.anarchitect
Monographs 2018 / #digitaldisobediences_s/he would rather do Fiction Maker (Frac-Centre) Digitaldisobediences 2015 / mythomaniaS.mythomaniaS 2014 / Heretical-Machinism. 2011 / Architecture des Humeurs. Catalogue on research-exhibition. PDF 2mo/ Mouvement Publisher 2010 / New-Territories-R&Sie(n)./ C3 Korea Publisher 2010 / BioReboot./ Princeton Press Bioreboot 2007 / Fiction Scripts./ Fiction Scripts 2006 / Spoiled Climate./ Spoiled Climate 2005 / I,ve heard About. 2004 / Corrupted Biotopes./ Corrupted Biotopes 2003 / T(e)en Years After./ T(e)en Years After 2000 / Mutation @morphes./ Mutation @morphes 1994 / The Shadow of Chameleon./ The Shadow of Chameleon All monographies/ texts / article are public and free downloadable / >>>HERE<<<
Academia Roche and S/he were involved in Guest Professor position among other places and chronologically at Bartlett-UCL-London 2000, at UPenn-Philadelphia 2006 and 2015–016, at GSAPP-Columbia-NYC 2006–2017, at USC-Los Angeles 2009–11, at RMIT-Melbourne 2012–2017, and few years at IKA (2017) and Angewante-Vienna (2009), AFAA-Bratislava (2018). He taught 'processes' in 2023 at KHM-Koln but it seems in conflit with its AfD administration, and a permanent member of EGS _ Division of Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought since 2012
Notable exhibitions 1990: Venice Architecture Biennale, French Pavilion "40 architects less than 40 years old" 1993: Action, Solo exhibition Institut Francais d'Architecture 1999-2000: @namorphous changes, Columbia University (New York), UCLA (Los Angeles) 1996: le monolythe fracture, Venice Architecture Biennale, French Pavilion 2000: aqua alta 1.0/2.0, Venice Architecture Biennale, International and French Pavilions 2001: In any way, it's already happened, ICA, London 2002: Biennale Architecture French Pavilion, co-curating with Frac Orleans, position declined for self sabotage and political reason (public letter) 2003: Asphalt Spot, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Niigata Prefecture, Japan 2004: metamorph, Venice Architecture Biennale, International Pavilion, Arsenale 2004: Frac Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo 2004: L’exposition Architectures non standard, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France 2005: "I’ve heard about (Modèles de sécrétion)", as New Territories, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France 2006: Frac Centre-Val de Loire, Orléans, France 2006: terra incognita, Tate Modern, London, 2006, with Pierre Huyghe 2008: Venice Architecture Biennale, International Italian Pavilion, bi[r]o-bo[o]ts installation 2009: radical nature, Barbican, London 2009: Lost in Paris, Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris, France 2009: green building, Louisiana (Denmark, 2009),Green Building, Louisiana, Denmark 2010:Venice Architecture Biennale, International Pavilion (@isotropic uranium installation), Entire Arsenale closed for one day as paranoiac reaction, Uranium stone confiscated by police + Austrian Pavilion (teaching studios installation) 2010: L’architecture des humeurs, solo exhibition, Le Laboratoire, Paris, France 2012: Venice Biennal Architecture, US Pavilion (Critics' Roundtable) + Slovenia Maribor ephemeral pavillon + Co-curating a Dark Side night 2014: Venice Biennal Architecture, pavilion Bembo, Time Space Existence: presenting Timidity Symptom, a project related to the contemporary art museum in Bangkok + invitation to a Dark Side night. 2015: #mythomaniaS, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, Illinois 2016: S/he would rather do Fiction maker, retrospective, Frac Centre-Val de Loire, Orléans, France 2016: Are we human, Istanbul Biennale 2018: Venice Biennal Architecture, pavilion Bembo + pavillon Lithuanian + Co-curating a Dark Side night 2019: The Arts and the Future, An Architecture in Moods, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2020: Escape Routes, FortuneShel(tell)er, Biennale Bangkok,FortuneShel(tell)er 2021: Ecologies and Politics of the Living, Vienna Biennale, Vienna, Austria 2022: Rivus, Biennale Sydney,/ PsychoTropism 2.0 2023: SHIFTING_DRIFTING/mythomaniaS_S/he_New-Territories_2012-2022, lathouse, Zurich, Switzerland 2023: La Chambre des Mèmoires-à-Venir _S/he_New-Territories_fR, E.Coccia, M.Tamori, C.Delaporte 'les Mondes Nouveaux', Paris-La-Defense The Past-Future Chamber 2025: Npermanencies Tractatus, in Arsenale international selection with _S/he_New-Territories_fR, E.Coccia, M.Tamori, Damien Sorrentino and UTS Sydney, marking a notable return after the controversial 2010 uranium incident effectively led to a long absence or banishment from the central exhibition + invitation to a Dark Side night Npermanencies Tractatus 1990‐2025: In total, New-Territories (R&Sie(n) / [eIf/bʌt/c] / M4) has been selected 15 times for participation in the Venice Biennale, in national and international pavilions
Notable collections 2002: Scrambled Flat 2.0, Waterflux, Evolène, Suisse, with R&Sie, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France 2003: "Mosquito Bottleneck Project, Trinidad", with R&Sie, SFMOMA, San Francisco, California 2003: "R&Sie(n), Water Flux (unbuilt) : Rendering of the structure", Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal 2005: "I’ve heard about (Modèles de sécrétion)", selected works, as New Territories, Mudam, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg 2007: "Heshotmedown, Demilitarized Zone, Korea", with R&Sie, SFMOMA, San Francisco, California 2017: Multiples Scenarios with Drawing, Models, Movies, Texts in a donation to Frac Centre, Orléans, at the occasion of retrospective S/he would rather do fiction maker 2021: MythomaniaS, acquired by Frac Centre, Orléans, serie of architecture cases studies and movies 2018: mind [e] scape, as New Territories, Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Further reading Works about François Roche